On the soaring foods prices…

Nigerians daily, complaint about soaring prices of food items in the markets and, this week, President Muhammadu Buhari has lent his voice to their series of complaints.

The president, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, said while providence has been kind to Nigerians with the rains, raising expectation for bumper harvest and, ultimately, crashing of food prices, the exploitative market behaviours of some actors have killed peoples’ enthusiasm and led to increase in prices.

Consequently, things are tough for the common people who have, in recent times, seen their conditions of living take a turn for the worse. This ugly situation, therefore, made the concerns expressed by the president and many other Nigerians regarding the sudden spiraling of prices of food products genuine, and they could not have come at a more appropriate time than now.

Yes, because this development comes at a time when the economies of the world, particularly of developing countries including Nigeria, face difficult times as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In fact, some economic analysts argue with good reasons that Nigeria’s economy heads toward recession.

Many reasons are of course adduced for soaring prices of food items but much of that can be reduced to the coronavirus. COVID-19 has had a dire effect on global economies.

Infection rates have led to social distancing directives, persistent lockdowns, the closing of businesses, travel restraints, salary cuts, and a looming high unemployment situation.

Economic activities in Nigeria, border closures and people’s movement are being restricted as is the situation in other countries. These developments have shrunk economies, almost dramatically, and with that food supply value chain became globally affected.

These developments also affected all sectors of the economy. But food supply has taken the most severe hit, with food prices rising dramatically between February and August 2020.

However, other than the COVID-19-related factors, other reasons that include tighter access to credit and the complexities of loan repayments for the farmers and limited access to farm inputs have coupled to make prices of food products go up.

Other factors that also contribute to that unfortunate development include a poor transportation system in Nigeria that often leads to wastage and inadequate food supply. Likewise, the border closure limited food imports and further shrunk the supply chain.

Though the president assured Nigerians that the unfortunate situation is transient and his administration is putting in place measures to ameliorate the situation, some apt and deliberate measures need to be taken to holistically address the problem.

Thankfully, as the president pointed out, the government is aware that food prices rocketing are due to the activities of some local and foreign “corrupt” middlemen and food traders who serve as the link between farmers and consumers who connive to create artificial scarcity so that they can sell their products at higher prices.

Now that the government knows that ploy, it should go after such corrupt people, arrest and prosecute them. Other than that, there is a need for the government to encourage and champion modern agricultural practices in Nigeria.

This will go a long way in enhancing food production and reducing the cost of products. Agriculture commodities required for industrial use need to cost less for the products to penetrate not just the domestic market, but also the international market.

Mechanised farming, especially the type that requires the inputs of educated youths, without saying the obvious, is beyond what the country’s poor, illiterate and aging farmers can engage in without government’s support.

Instructively, the youth should be re-orientated with a view to bringing about attitudinal change among them. The government should enlighten them, make them interested and empower them to become practitioners in agriculture.

With proper mobilisation, free land and improved seedlings given to youth and with governments making foodstuffs market readily available, only the sky will be the limit for the youth as far as food production is concerned.

When agriculture is made attractive, youth will go into it and produce food in large quantities, which will reduce the cost of food items. What’s more, Nigeria has good climate and weather.

Thankfully, too, the president has approved the release of food items from the strategic reserves, including 30,000 tonnes of maize, to animal feed producers to ease the high cost of poultry production.

Going forward, the government should introduce a rebate in food prices. This can be achieved with the government buying foodstuffs and redistributing the same to the people.

The authorities, especially at the state and local levels, can also go into partnership with some notable agricultural agents to produce food items and sell them at cheap prices. The authorities can also buy farm produce from farmers directly and then resell to consumers.

Of course, these measures may seem to mean governments dabbling into business, but, in the end, what should count is to what extent the authorities have gone to put food on the tables of Nigerians.

Until then, however, it is, indeed, pleasing to know that the Buhari-led administration has engaged food producer associations, particularly those of rice and other grains, and, hopefully, with their cooperation, the prohibitive food prices should soon be a thing of the past.

Sarki Abba and COVID-19 hoax

True or false, hoax or real, the story of someone, especially among those close to President Muhammadu Buhari, or for that matter anyone anywhere near the Presidency contracting the coronavirus cannot be tolerated.

The virus, maybe wrongly, is seen as a death sentence. And, with some of those termed as the president’s men already dead in recent times, the last thing any person likes to be told is that another of the president’s aides suffers from the dreaded COVID-19.

At the onset of the coronavirus in Nigeria, a right hand man of the president and his chief of staff, Malam Abba Kyari, got his life claimed by the pandemic. About three months later, two other close allies of the president in the persons of Alhaji Ismaila Isa Funtua and Malam Wada Maida, also died, but not as a result of the pandemic.

Thus, when the Presidency, this week, said that the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Affairs and Domestic Matters, Mr Sarki Abba, has not tested positive for COVID-19, the news was greeted by huge sigh of relief from workers at the Presidency in particular and the country in general.

The revelation was made by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, in a statement issued in Abuja which says that the COVID-19 story associated with Sarki was a hoax.

In fact, the statement said that the Senior Special Assistant, Social Affairs and Domestic Matters, Sarki Abba, had undergone several COVID-19 tests and his results proved negative.

The statement said: “The Presidency wishes to advise Nigerians to ignore determined agents of fake news bent on spreading false stories to the public….The general public is hereby advised to ignore such stories that are intended to mislead the people and create unnecessary anxiety about the safety of the President.

“Don’t let yourself to be manipulated by any medium that thrives on yellow journalism and specialises in peddling fake news in the desperate quest for the market and donor money.”

The statement was issued to counter what the Presidency called the utter falsehood and disgraceful lies dished out to Nigerians by a digital newspaper which claimed that Sarki Abba tested positive for COVID-19.

The Presidency described the report as a sheer fabrication and brazen effort made by the online news medium to mislead the public with a view to achieving only what the medium can tell, through mischievous means.

But an even more important thing found in the statement is the revelation that, based on the directive of doctors and scientists and under supervision of Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the Chief of Staff to the President, all staff working for and around the president are subjected to routine and rigorous coronavirus check. This is a good practice to emulate, especially states’ authorities and corporate organisations in order to guard against the spread of COVID-19 in important official quarters.

There is no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic has dealt, and continues to deal, serious blows to the country’s economy. This situation makes it incumbent on everyone, everywhere and at every time to lend their hands to the government’s ongoing effort to eradicate and or tame the spread of the pandemic and save the people and the economy from further destruction.

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